School Uses Justin Bieber Music to Force Charity Donations
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Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic(EVANSTON, Ill.) — Two students at a high school in Illinois found a unique way to raise money for a charity this holiday season: by holding their classmates hostage to the song stylings of Justin Bieber.
Bieber’s voice and song lyrics, worshipped among tween and teen girls, were turned into a weapon against cheapskates: Evanston Township High School seniors Charlotte Runzel and Jesse Chatz needed a quick way to raise big money to save a struggling cafe and arts center down the street from the school, and figured Bieber’s tunes would be so hated that people would pay up to make it stop.
Runzel and Chatz talked administrators at their Chicago-area school into letting them play Bieber’s hit song “Baby” over the intercom — repeatedly, throughout the school day, until their fellow students donated enough to reach the fundraiser’s $1,000 goal.
They estimated they would need one week to hit the target. The campaign, called “Stop the Bieber,” began on Monday. Bieber’s “Baby” was played eight times a day over the school’s intercom between classes, and it only took three days for the plan to work. By Wednesday, they had raised the $1,000 and were able to turn the music off, reports TribLocal, the Evanston edition of the Chicago Tribune.
The administrator of Boocoo, the nonprofit cafe that is now the beneficiary of the school’s largesse (or annoyance at Bieber), said she and the staff were “incredibly moved” by the gesture. The cafe has also pledged to provide free space for artistic presentations by Evanston students.
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio